I was in the room when it got killed! Between 12th and 14th Streets Was the Dancing Raisins ad a success? SW: Seth has a whole scrapbook of these letters. They're just a staple. They sold most of their raisins in bulk, to ingredient customers, like cereal brands or bakeries. (of Suite D2 Josephs Well, Hanover Walk, Leeds LS3 1AB) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (with firm reference number 626349). California Raisins T-shirt ~ I Heard It Through The Grapevine ~ Claymation 80s. SW: Kalem Barserian, raisin industry veteran, again. There it is. And they were hearing from those ingredient customers that they had an issue with the ads: BK: Some large customers felt they were paying for it. Web. SW: The California raisin industry is complicated. The California Raisins II is a 1990 claymation television special directed by Will Vinton, featuring the advertising characters The California Raisins. VINTAGE THE CALIFORNIA RAISINS 1987 YELLOW PLASTIC LUNCHBOX WITH THERMOS, California Raisins Trumpet Figure 1988 Applause Calrab 80s PVC Vintage, CALIFORNIA RAISINS RUDY BAGAMAN, BANANA WHITE & LICK BROCCOLI FIGURES (JES33). We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. Their cover of Marvin Gaye's &, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. CH: After the break, five million dollars DOES go a long way, the Dancing California Raisins conga line their way to record deals and awards, and they split the raisin industry right down the middle. Their cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. RAISINS SHOW: You might have heard about us through the old grapevine. Now, somebody just had to turn Seth Werner's concept into a real commercial. Note: This transcript may contain errors. SPEAKER SIX: They were an incredible Motown band.SPEAKER ONE: I thought they were a real band, and really did not connect them to like raisins, or like the idea of dried grapes until well into my adulthood. Werner and Fedor also thought that the commercial should use clay animation, a type of stop-motion animation using characters or settings made out of clay or other similarly pliable materials, rather than regular cartoon animation. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Casey Holford and John DeLore composed our theme. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. Did it, uh, did it drive up the price of raisins? And apparently, making a clay "King of Pop" was a whole 'nother can of worms. But, that's not where this story ends. Sunmaid. WERNER: We still thought it was cool. They all watched as Seth walked in and took the floor. But I also take the approach of, that was 30 years ago so I think it's time that we look forward because the industry is in a very dramatic, very drastically different place than it was back then. While the songs popularized the phrase, they inspired the hit kids cartoon series "The California Raisins" in the 1990s. And that takes unity. What about Michael Jackson and what he was contributing? Price: 16.01. But actually to me, one of the most interesting parts of that story was this little section on the California Dancing Raisins ads from the '80s. Blastfrompasttoys. So, growers and packers paid a tax on every ton of raisins they produced. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. SW: That is exactly what I wanted to find out. He just wanted to make an ad he thought was cool. These days, some growers are abandoning ship entirely, ripping out their vineyards and planting almonds instead. Condition: Used. CH: This commercial was the most popular TV ad in 1987 and 1988. It's very successful in that sense. Definitely [both laugh]. Michael Jackson asked to be featured in a sequel. KB: And at this point, even though I had to vote to kill it, I side on the other side, where I helped put that program together, and was successful for ten years. I don't care how small or whatever, but something that's not part of what you're doing.'. SW: That's Alvin and the Chipmunks, for those of you aren't fans. These albums were included in the Smithsonian collection and were illustrated and art-directed by Helane Freeman, who later became famous for her work on Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, among other Disney programs. THE THROWBACK MACHINE: Going for the gold, but coming up blonde. SPEAKER ONE: Like obviously, they're raisins, but it just didn't occur to me that like this was a tool to get you to eat like what you see in boxes of raisins. "Picture cover". It taxed both growers and packers. Packers sort the raisins by size, rinse out sand and dirt, control for quality, and pack them all up in boxes. There were some other big names, like Dole and Del Monte, but they didn't just sell raisins. But despite it all, by a very narrow margin, more than half the room voted to greenlight the ad. And so he says, 'Ok fine. . Some people were saying they weren't getting a big enough slice of the Dancing Raisins pie. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Not so much. Washington, D.C. Email powered by MailChimp (Privacy Policy & Terms of Use), African American History Curatorial Collective. BK: Well, the simplest way to answer that is, 'how do you define success?' Director. I said, 'Ok, that's one piece of the marketing puzzle. WERNER: They'd make these little clay models of the raisins, and I remember sitting there with one of the animators, and he'd make an expression in a mirror, and then he'd make that expression on the face of the raisin. WERNER: Well, you know, we were at this point, we were like what else is new. By the time "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" hit #1, the song had been sitting there for more than two years. SW: Kalem was voting on behalf of the packer he worked for. SW: But you know who was on that shelf? 2016 ScienceAGoGo. You know? SPEAKER SEVEN: I also remember in the '80s there was a California Raisin Saturday morning cartoon?SPEAKER EIGHT: I loved the California raisins so much that I went as one for trick-or-treating when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Get instant explanation for any acronym or abbreviation that hits you anywhere on the web! CH: So where did this journey for you begin? If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. Needless to say, their band history borrowed heavily from the types of origin stories real bands tended to have. Like the whole body was just a head, with arms and legs waving about. The California Raisins were a fictional rhythm and blues animated musical group as well as advertising and merchandising characters composed of anthropomorphized raisins. Will Vinton. Now, the story of a man many call an outlaw. ", In 2017, an episode of The Simpsons called "The Cad and the Hat" included a couch gag segment featuring the California Raisins being killed by Homer.[21]. And because Sunmaid was so much biggerthe Kleenex of raisins!they suspected that brand was getting a bigger share of the sales that had trickled down from the ad. Lyrics.com. California Raisin's Version. The concept was originally created by advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) for a 1986 Sun-Maid commercial on behalf of the California Raisin Advisory Board when one of the writers, Seth Werner (at the time with FCB in San Francisco) came up with an idea for the new raisin commercial, saying, "We have tried everything but dancing raisins singing 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine'" (the 1968 song popularized by Marvin Gaye). CH: A warship, the USS Pyro, even asked permission to sail with a California Dancing Raisins flag flying high above ahoy mateys! And it paid for all that buzz with an assessmentor a taxon the raisin industry. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online. This was not a formula. SETH WERNER: It wasn't back then, and it still isn't now. McCartney. "The Raisins opened up a floodgate everything had to be personified," Vinton told Food & Winelast year. [13], Although popular with the public, the California Raisin campaign eventually failed because its production cost the raisin growers almost twice their earnings. The article ranked The California Raisins' premiere advertisement, "Lunchbox", at #15 with comments by ad agency executive Claude Jacques and described the Raisins as "The coolest wrinkled musicians this side of the Stones. BK: If you're one of the largest ingredient buyers for bread or cereal or something, then really you're paying for it, right? SW: Kalem says the vote on whether or not to approve the ad was extremely close. KB: Whereas the packer is the middleman buying it from him, processing it, selling it, shipping it into trade and hoping to make a profit. It keeps you in shape. The success of the dancing raisins exposed fractures in the industry which had been forming just under the surface for decades. BK: You gotta have consensus. AD SIX: Oh, I heard it through the grapevine! Stay up to date with what you want to know. SW: When the Dancing Raisins ad stopped airing, Sunmaid's share of direct raisin saleslike in boxes on grocery store shelvesactually increased. Right or wrong, It depends on wherever the votes are. Qualifying purchases could enjoy 0% interest if paid in full in 4 months on purchases of 99+. Please take time to look at pictures I try and show condition clear as possible. Just one piece! They needed to be the life of the snack bar. SW: Clyde E. Nef, who was CALRAB's manager at the time, wrote about Seth's performance and the board's reaction in his book, The Fruits of Their Labors. WERNER: We want sunglasses on them, I want to put them in Converse sneakers, but untie the laces, and they gotta look hip, basically. Hey Sarah. MM: At every industry meeting I go to, it seems like someone's asking, some raisin grower's asking 'are you ever going to bring the raisin, dancing raisins back?' Because that's a whole market supply and demand on both the national and international basis. And if the California raisin family wanted to avert economic disaster, it needed to band together and find a way to sell more raisins. In 2010, claymation versions of the California Raisins were featured in the special Christmas episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "A Very Sunny Christmas". During the peak of their popularity in the late '80s, the California Raisins also had a fan club, merchandise that spanned from plush toys to lunch boxes to air fresheners, and a series of comic books. (981) $9.95. This commercial has witimaginationand it was good enough that I went and bought a box of Californian grown raisins.'. I didn't eat raisins. But in 1994, the raisin industry abruptly pulled the plug on the ad and its spinoffs, and still debates whether or not it was successful. Then in 1989, a 13-episode Saturday Morning Cartoon show calledThe California Raisin Show aired. ', SW: Barry Kriebel was president of Sunmaid at the time. In The Simpsons episode "'Tis the Fifteenth Season", The California Raisins were spoofed as The California Prunes, on a special entitled Christmas with the California Prunes. Deathly silence filled the Board room for what was probably only another thirty seconds, but seemed much longer. 80s classic toys. The lead singer is wailing, wearing shadesnaturally, since they were raised in the California sunshine. Was Marvin Gaye spinning in his grave? SW: The raisin industry quickly followed up with more ads. There was 19 of us at Sunnyside country club sitting in a circle in the main dining room, and we all voted. They starred in two claymation TV shorts, and a Christmas special that won an Emmy! KB: Once we started the Dancing Raisins, people were going to the store asking for Dancing Raisin raisins, and there weren't any! If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions. He has faith in the industry's ability to work this out. Matthew has observed his fair share of contentious industry meetings. Almost all the packers resented Sunmaid, but not all for the same reasons. Of all the acronyms, there's just one you need to remember: CALRAB. But how did a bunch of dried grapes, burdened with the reputationof being a mediocre, boring snack, become synonymous with swagger? Demand was down. Free shipping for many products! The life of the marketing puzzle call an outlaw or other Use, please visit Rights and.! Lead singer is wailing, wearing shadesnaturally, since they were n't getting big. Of worms people were saying they were n't getting a big enough of. Be featured in a circle in the California raisins were a fictional rhythm and blues animated musical group Well! The success of the Dancing raisins pie, growers and packers paid a tax every! Buzz with an assessmentor a taxon the raisin industry veteran, again time to look at pictures try! 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